


Just a Scratch

by CherryBlossomLesbian



Series: Prompt Fills [4]
Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Blood, Bucky Barnes Has PTSD, Gen, Guilt, Hurt Peter Parker, Peter Parker has PTSD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Prompt Fill, pain sensitivity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 21:33:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27253483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CherryBlossomLesbian/pseuds/CherryBlossomLesbian
Summary: "Kid?" Mr. Stark's voice cut through the silence of the compound as he grabbed some soda from the fridge in the kitchen."Mhm?" Peter responded as he grabbed a can of ginger ale."Why are you limping?""Oh, yeah, I underestimated a swing from building to building and my ankle hit the wall." He tried to feign indifference to the injury, but in reality it still hurt a lot. At first, Peter thought it had been broken, but he knew he was probably overreacting to this like he did with every injury. It seemed stupid that he was almost always in pain after patrol from something, but he’d learned not to tell unless it was bleeding bad. He’d been a burden before with injuries that turned out to be nothing, he didn’t want to do it again.OR: Peter is more sensitive to pain, and he feels like a burden for it. Bucky helps him out.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Peter Parker, Peter Parker & Tony Stark
Series: Prompt Fills [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1978546
Comments: 4
Kudos: 177





	Just a Scratch

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This prompt was actually sent to me on my [Curious Cat](https://curiouscat.qa/CherryBlossomLesbian)! Thank you so much for the prompt! 
> 
> [Original prompt post](https://whumpster-dumpster.tumblr.com/post/615079444348125184/gotta-love-a-whumpee-who-overreacts-to-a) by whumpster-dumpster on tumblr!
> 
> if you'd like to submit a prompt for me to write, check out the notes of my prompt fills series this fic is in!

"Pete, this is just a scratch."

Peter opened his eyes slowly, tears threatening to spill over, and looked up at Mr. Stark. 

They were in the workshop on a Saturday night. Mr. Stark was working on upgrades for his suit and Peter was trying to create a better version of the web fluid. He'd nudged his hand on the sharp edge of the device, and cried out as pain ran through his body. 

He thought it was more than a scratch. 

It hurt a lot. 

"I thought you were bleeding out from the sound you made, kid." Mr. Stark says, letting go of Peter's hand and going back to looking at holoscreens displaying scientific equations and the current reactor technology. 

"Oh." Peter replied, suddenly feeling guilty. 

He didn't mean to overreact. 

~~~~~~~

"Kid?" Mr. Stark's voice cut through the silence of the compound as he grabbed some soda from the fridge in the kitchen. 

"Mhm?" Peter responded as he grabbed a can of ginger ale. 

"Why are you limping?" 

"Oh, yeah, I underestimated a swing from building to building and my ankle hit the wall." He tried to feign indifference to the injury, but in reality it still hurt a lot. At first, Peter thought it had been broken, but he knew he was probably overreacting to this like he did with every injury. It seemed stupid that he was almost always in pain after patrol from something, but he’d learned not to tell unless it was bleeding bad. He’d been a burden before with injuries that turned out to be nothing, he didn’t want to do it again. 

Mr. Stark slapped a hand to his forehead in anguish. “Kid, I told you, you gotta tell me when these things happen. I’ve told you that.” He shook his head. “If it happened last night and you’re still limping, it’s bad enough to go to the medbay.” He got up from his seat and put his arm around Peter’s shoulder. 

“C’mon, bud. Cho’s in today, she can take a look at it.” He said as he started to corral Peter out of the kitchen and down the hallways of the compound. 

~~~~~~~

“The x-rays don’t show any injury to the bone or tendons.” Dr. Cho reported a few hours later, after a long examination and x-rays were taken. “No swelling visible either. Did you ice the injury when you got it?” 

Peter shook his head. 

She sighed. “I don’t really know what can be causing your pain then. I can see a small, mostly healed bruise on your ankle, but other than that…”

“It’s nothing.” Peter filled in, his tone somber. 

She nodded. 

Great. He’d overreacted again. Caused Mr. Stark to take him down here, to waste Dr. Cho’s time. Mr. Stark could've been upgrading his suit or creating technology that could help millions, and Dr. Cho could've been advancing genetic research and breaking the barriers of what was thought to be medically impossible. 

Instead, they'd both had hours taken out of their day to deal with something that wasn't even a problem at all. 

It was nothing. 

~~~~~~

"Dr. Banner?" 

The scientist jumped when he heard the voice in his lab. 

He let out a breathless sigh of relief upon seeing Peter standing in the doorway. 

"Geez, kid. I didn't even hear you coming down the hallway." Dr. Banner removed the vinyl gloves he had while handling whatever substance was in the test tube he'd been examining. "You been stealth training lately?" 

"Yeah. A bit." Peter's voice was nervous, shaky. "What're you working on?" He said in an attempt to change the subject. 

"Oh, this?" Dr. Banner pointed to the test tube filled with a green liquid. "Shuri sent me this rare flower, I extracted the liquid from it's petals and I'm trying to study its properties." 

"...but I'm guessing you didn't come to my lab to hear about flower liquid, did you?" Dr. Banner said, noticing Peter's anxious appearance. 

"Yeah, uh…" Peter slowly walked into the lab, moving carefully as to not disrupt anything, until he was just a few feet away from Dr. Banner. "I think there's something wrong with me." 

Dr. Banner's eyebrow quirked up. "Why would you think that?" 

"Well, like, I, uh...I get hurt. But it's nothing serious and it's just a scratch but it hurts like hell-" Peter caught himself right after he swore, then quickly apologized. 

"Peter, you're sixteen, you're allowed to swear a bit." Dr. Banner bit the inside of his cheek as he thought about what Peter had said. "If you think it's something with your metabolism that was altered because of the spider bite, I think I've tested everything I can with that. If it was related to that, I can take blood again and look at the genes more closely. I can't promise it'll heed any results, though." 

Peter sighed. He was hoping to just get quick validation, that his metabolism healed things quicker but the pain stayed behind longer than the actual injury, but it didn't seem like that was going to be the case. 

Still, it couldn't hurt to check.

~~~~~~~

An hour later, after a blood withdraw (that Peter was still clutching at the inside of his arm from, the sting still there even after a while since the blood was drawn), Dr. Banner finished studying the sample and reported that there was nothing that could be causing the overreaction to pain. 

"So...I'm just crazy?" Peter asked, and Dr. Banner shook his head. 

"No, kid, you're not crazy. It's not physical, nothing I can identify, but that doesn't mean it's not mental. I've had nearly this exact conversation before, believe it or not." Dr. Banner said, placing a gentle hand on Peter's shoulder, as if to ground him. 

Peter's eyebrows perked up in curiosity. "You have?" 

"Yep, with somebody who lives right here in the compound. I''ll give you infinite guesses. Bet you'll get it." Dr. Banner said with a smirk, turning away from Peter to clean up the lab a bit. 

Peter thought for only a moment before he knew the answer. 

"Sergeant Barnes." 

~~~~~~~

Peter caught him in the kitchen right before movie night the following Saturday.

"Hey, Sergeant Barnes." He greeted, trying to keep his voice from shaking due to nerves. He never had an actual conversation with the other man, only passing comments and their initial introduction when he moved out of Wakanda and into the compound. 

"Bucky, kiddo. Haven't been a sergeant since 1945." He laughed a bit, pouring a bag of popcorn into a large bowl. 

"Right, uh." Peter swallowed nervously, preparing to talk with Sergeant Barne- Bucky, about this. "Can I talk with you?" 

His motions freeze. He finishes pouring the last bit of popcorn into the bowl, then says, in a hushed voice, "What about?" 

"About, uh...about pain overreaction." Peter says, mimicking the same hushed voice as Bucky. 

"... you've talked with Bruce?" He asks, and Peter nods.

"Well, then, it's not physical, so. Do you know if you have any form of PTSD, kid?" His voice just kept getting quieter and quieter, checking the entrance to the kitchen from the common area to make sure nobody was eavesdropping. He was keeping this all very private. 

Peter appreciated it. 

"Yeah, I think. I had a counselor when I was younger. She said it's likely I had it, after what happened to my parents." He wasn't sure if Bucky knew what happened to his parents, but he at least he knows he lives with his aunt, so he must know his parents aren't in his life anymore so something must've happened. 

"Alright. There's a starting point. My own therapist told me there's a huge link between PTSD and how pain is processed in your brain. It's a bunch of science shit, you'd probably like to read up about it, but in short, to some people with PTSD things just...hurt more." He shrugged. "They do for me." 

"It's not nothing?" Peter asked, a bit curious about what Bucky had said. He was probably going to read up about it later. 

Bucky laughed for a second. "No, kid. It's not nothing. I thought the same thing." 

"...how do you deal with it? I always feel so... guilty. About wasting people's time. Especially Dr. Cho's and Mr. Stark's." He confessed, and Bucky nodded understandingly. 

"You're not wasting anybody's time. I thought the same thing. Stevie was always dragging me to medical cause he saw I was in pain, and then it turned out to be a single cut or bruise that was too small for how much pain I was in. After we figured out it was just another effect of my PTSD, I talked with Dr. Cho and the rest of the medical staff, tried to apologise that they had to deal with me. But kid, Dr. Cho wouldn't be staying and doing research at the compound if she didn't want to help us. And if helping us means that making sure nothing is wrong when we're in pain, she's all up for that. And don't worry about Stark, he's got people wasting his time constantly but having to make sure you don't have a serious injury is not wasting his time. It'd explain to them why you're more sensitive to pain, through. I can help you with that. And I'd suggest seeing a counselor or a therapist again." Bucky finished his speech by stealing a piece of popcorn from the bowl. 

"But that can be later, okay? It's movie night now, c'mon." Bucky grabbed the bowl and started to head out into the common room. 

Peter followed, thankful to finally have an answer. 

~~~~~~~

He did read up on it. 

Scientifically, the explanation was "prolonged deranged cortisol levels from PTSD can also deplete your adrenal glands, which in turn, raises the level of prolactin and therefore your sensitivity to pain increases."

He managed to tell Mr. Stark all on his own. He assured Peter he wasn't being a burden by having injuries or having a higher sensitivity to pain. He even offered to help Peter find the best counselor for him. 

Telling Dr. Cho was a little harder. Bucky accompanied him for it, and eventually he got the words out. 

She was as supportive as Mr. Stark was, and said exactly what Bucky had told him at movie night. She wouldn't be working here if she didn't want to help. 

About a week after that, he was set up with a counselor and was getting better at just telling Mr. Stark when he got hurt on patrol, and telling him how his pain levels were, truthfully, instead of hiding it. 

He continued to feel pain more severely than others would, but that was okay with him now. 

Because Mr. Stark understood. and Dr. Cho understood. and Sergeant Barnes understood. 

He wasn't a burden. He wasn't a waste of time.

He wasn't alone.

**Author's Note:**

> Fun fact, the two incidents that are written to show that Peter is sensitive to pain actually happened to me, except I didn't get them from doing superhero things. I have PTSD myself and the sensitivity to pain is a real thing. The article I quoted is [here](https://www.ptsduk.org/chronic-pain-ptsd/). It's a really interesting topic to look into, and shows just how complex and interesting our brains and bodies are. 
> 
> [Twitter](https://twitter.com/cartersleia)
> 
> [Tumblr](https://cartersleia.tumblr.com)


End file.
